An enterprise system refers to the network of computers, interconnection equipment, and software components used within a business or organization to support the execution of business processes, information flows, reporting, data analysis, and so forth within and between organizations. A set of packaged application-software for an enterprise system can include, for example, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), strategic enterprise management (SEM), manufacturing integration and intelligence (MII), master data management (MDM), product lifecycle management (PLM), and so forth.
An enterprise system can additionally include all the data for manufacturing, supply chain management, financials, projects, human resources, etc., maintained in a common database. Through the common database, different business units can store and retrieve information. An enterprise system can be advantageous for a number of reasons, including standardization, lower maintenance, providing a common interface for accessing data, greater and more efficient reporting capabilities, sales and marketing purposes, and so forth.
Enterprise systems are typically back-end systems that support a company's back office. The “back office” is generally considered to be the technology, services, and human resources required to manage a company itself. Such back-end systems are typically contained within restricted access environments that require appropriate authentication and verification before a user can access such systems.
Unfortunately, access to enterprise systems can be complex and limited to certain users in an organization. For example, the use of an enterprise software system often requires a direct connection to the system. As such, use of these enterprise systems is typically limited to users with access to a desktop or a mobile workstation with disparate authorization and verification protocols. Furthermore, user interfaces (i.e., programs and hardware that control a display for the user and that allow the user to interact with the devices to these enterprise systems) can be difficult to implement and greatly varied among the various devices.